“It is an unfortunate thing to say, but the war in Afghanistan is really dragging the nation down,” said Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the Newark-based Peoples Organization for Progress. “How can the Obama administration continue to spend a trillion dollars on war, while our nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble?”

Mr. Hamm said the budget situation in New Jersey was at a crucial point with no light or solution at the end of the tunnel.

The Peace and Justice Coalition had three basic demands coming out of the conference, said Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the Peoples Organization for Progress, who served as the conference’s moderator.

“We want an immediate end to the war, the troops brought home now and the money being spent for the war to be redirected toward domestic needs,” Mr. Hamm said.

“I thought the conference was successful in that it strengthened our resolve to make the connection between the trillion dollars being spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the suffering of our people here at home,” he told The Final Call.